Team

Connie Max, Senior Vice President for Lending

Connie Max currently serves as LISC’s Senior Vice President of Lending. Ms. Max leads the daily operations of the lending division including, originations, closings and asset management of its $425 million portfolio. Ms. Max also supports efforts to raise and deploy special funding sources. Most recently, Ms. Max served as Vice President and Chief Credit Officer for the Nonprofit Finance Fund managing the approval and portfolio management processes. Previously, she served as the Director of Prudential Financial’s Social Investment Division, managing a portfolio of socially motivated investments of debt, equity and tax credits.

Prior to joining Prudential, she was a Managing Director with ShoreBank Advisory Services and as an advisor to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in this role she launched and led a three country commercial loan program (Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia). Her community development work began when she left a mainstream mortgage loan bank position to volunteer in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. She speaks Spanish and some Russian, holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration with a Finance concentration from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and a Master’s in International Business Administration from The American Graduate School of International Management.

Credit Review

Malini Nayar, Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

Malini Nayar serves as Vice President and Chief Credit Officer in the Lending Department. She reviews and approves all funding requests across our national footprint. Ms. Nayar chairs LISC’s internal Credit Committee. Malini has over a fifteen years of experience in the CDFI industry having held positions at Enterprise Community Loan Fund, Inc., Nonprofit Finance Fund and Seedco where she was responsible for originating, underwriting and closing loans for the development of affordable housing, charter schools, community health centers and other community facilities and advising community development organizations on a range of capital, financial and project-related issues. In addition to her experience in community development finance, Malini also worked as a strategy consultant at the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Deloitte Consulting and as a financial auditor and international tax consultant in India. Malini has a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh and a BA in Finance from Bangalore University in India. Malini serves on the Board as Treasurer of Compass Charter School, a progressive elementary school in Brooklyn, NY.

Amanda Ikard, Credit Officer

Amanda streamlines actions from project conception through loan closing serving as a liaison between field offices and national departments. She oversees the administration of the credit review process, supports fiduciary compliance of LISC’s federal funding sources, and aggregates portfolio data of investments for analysis of project impact. Amanda graduated with a B.A. in English Literature and Abstract Mathematics from Boston College. As a native of Colorado, she loves anything outdoors and spends most of her days escaping to local coffee shops and used bookstores to further foster her problematic consumption of caffeine.

Jacky Cheng, Credit Analyst

Jacky is responsible for managing the loan origination and pipeline process, performing credit risk analysis, supporting LISC’s local offices in their lending efforts, and aggregating portfolio data for special projects. Jacky graduated with a B.A. in Economics and Business and a minor in Public Service from Hampden-Sydney College. In his downtime, Jacky manages his company Pan, a socially responsible business that has donated over 3,000 textbooks to the Christ-Roi School in Les Cayes, Haiti.

Closing

Jonathan Perea, Loan Closing Manager

Jonathan is responsible for loan closings and disbursements. He collects due diligence documents, processes loan disbursements and draws, and perform loan analysis. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Visual Communication in Photography and a MBA in Emerging Markets. He is a photography nomad and has traveled to over 300 countries while freelancing!

Emma Bowles, Loan Closing Specialist

Emma facilitates the closing process of the loan, works with borrowers, program staff and LISC Legal to ensure that all the necessary closing documentation is received and all closing conditions are met. She is responsible for sending the Loan Approval Notification Letter, tracking the Good Faith Fees, and managing on-going disbursements on predevelopment and working capital lines of credit. In her free time, Emma enjoys spending time with her family.

DeQuander Coles-Giscombe, Construction Analyst

DeQuander acts as the closing agent for LISC loans. She is responsible for collecting and reviewing documents and identifying any potential issues. She facilitates communication between various parties in the loan closing process. She also serves as a resource to national and local staff. DeQuander has over 10 years of legal experience and a B.A. from Empire State College. In her free time, DeQuander enjoys being a band mom and volunteering at various non-profits.

Asset Management

Mary Kursar, Director of Asset Management

Mary is responsible for the supervision of the management of LISC’s closed and funded or partially-funded portfolio. Mary’s duties include analyzing and monitoring the outstanding portfolio as well as restructuring and managing nonperforming assets. Mary holds a B.A. and M.S. in Real Estate Finance from NYU. Mary is a self-professed tech geek who has never met an Apple product she didn’t buy.

Ben Anderson, Senior Loan Monitoring Officer

Ben provides ongoing oversight and monitoring of the loan portfolio. Ben has a B.A. with distinction from Boston University and dual-M.A. from The American University and the UN-mandated University of Peace in Costa Rica.

Arunaba (Nabha) Chakravarty, Loan Monitoring Officer

Nabha supports local and national LISC programs with the performance of the loan portfolio. His responsibilities include the ongoing asset management of a portfolio of loans from New York City to Washington DC. Nabha has a B.A. from Brandeis University and an M.S. from The New School. When he’s not looking at pictures of golden retriever puppies on Instagram, he’s out exploring New York City’s enormous restaurant scene.

Brysan Brown, Loan Monitoring Officer

Brysan is the Asset Manager for several LISC regional programs, ranging from Chicago to Phoenix. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Syracuse University. He enjoys exploring the cheap eats of NYC, visiting museums, and rooting on his favorite sports teams.

National Lending & Business Development

Robin Halsband, Senior Director of Business Development

Robin manages business development for the lending team. Robin has twenty years of experience dedicated to community economic development and finance. She has a BA from Brown University in the very practical subject of French Literature and an MBA from Yale School of Management. When she’s not working, Robin is most likely to be hanging out with her husband and son at a Nationals game, or taking long walks with her beloved beagle, Desi (named after former Nats player Ian Desmond.)

Eva Rainer-Schweitzer, Director of Health Finance

Eva Rainer Schweitzer is Director of Health Finance at LISC. She comes to LISC with a depth of finance and community development experience. As an originator at NCB Capital Impact and as VP of Lending at City First Bank of DC, Eva transitioned her private sector finance and structuring experience into investments in community projects that included charter schools, small local businesses and community health centers. She served as Deputy Director of LISC’s Educational Facilities Financing Center, and was the Director of Lending and Portfolio Management at Building Hope. She earned a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Eva has served on numerous non-profit boards and committees, and currently spends her volunteer time organizing 5K fundraisers.

Pedro Gomez, National Underwriter

Pedro Gomez underwrites loans nationally for LISC. Prior to joining LISC, he managed the loan portfolio at Seedco Financial Services/Trufund Financial Services, a CDFI small business and nonprofit lender in New York City. He also worked at the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, where he directed the lending and grant programs targeting for-profit and nonprofit organizations willing to invest in the Bronx Empowerment Zone. He has an MBA from NYU, and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech. He particularly enjoys reading, biking and writing bios.

Shannon Sheets, National Underwriter

Shannon supports local offices with underwriting, structuring and closing loans. She holds a B.S. degree in Finance from Milliken University in Decatur, Illinois. Shannon is based in Hawaii and in her free time enjoys all that Hawaii has to offer – surfing, stand-up paddling and hiking. And when Shannon is not enjoying the outdoors or cranking out credit memos, she writes novels! She self-published her first novel (for those of you that enjoy psychological thrillers, check it out at www.shannonsheets.com) and is hoping to pick up an agent for her next book.

Noam Hurvitz-Prinz, National Underwriter

Noam Gross-Prinz joined LISC in 2014 after working for New York City based nonprofits for four years and operating an urban planning and nonprofit management consulting practice for two years. In his role as Senior Program Officer at LISC, he manages LISC Greater Cincinnati’s lending activity and provides technical assistance to partners in support of community development initiatives. He also provides lending support to local staff in other cities and underwrites loans for community development partners across the country. Noam has played a key role in advancing the Greater Cincinnati office’s organizing around affordable housing, including supervising the creation of the Housing Affordability in Hamilton County report and ongoing advocacy with local partners and municipal leaders. Noam has a B.A. in architecture and urban design from Hampshire College and a Master of Urban Planning from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.

Steve Hall, Senior Director for Economic Development Lending & Small Business

Steve Hall is responsible for providing lending solutions and personalized business coaching to entrepreneurs to enable them to start or grow their businesses. At LISC, he has supported the development of LISC Economic Development Lending and supports our new SBA 7a affiliate “immito” and LISC's other lending offerings. Steve loves small businesses because he has owner or invested in several. As an entrepreneur, Steve has owned a moving company, promotional company, t-shirt company and a snow cone stand. The snow cone stand was the most profitable and generally supported Steve’s other ventures.

Kate Novotny-Angeles, Manager for Economic Development Lending & Small Business

Kate is responsible for business development and training related to LISC small business lending. In addition, she manages a national partnership with Kiva, a crowdfunding lending platform, which funds start-up and existing businesses up to $10,000. Kate has over eight years of experience in entrepreneurship, financial inclusion and lending. Her skillset ranges from CEO of a startup social venture to Lending Manager at a national microfinance lender. Additionally, she has developed programing for an incubator, managed tax sites for low-income families and coordinated grant proposals and development strategies for LISC Milwaukee in 2013. Kate is a graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI where she earned a B.A in Latin American Studies and Spanish as well as a Masters Certificate in Entrepreneurship. She is fluent in Spanish and has studied in Mexico and Chile. Kate loves a good cup of coffee, trips to Northern Wisconsin and the Green Bay Packers!

Pay for Success

Terry Gillen, Director of Pay For Success

Terry Gillen is the Director of LISC’s Pay For Success program. She manages the team that is implementing LISC’s social impact bond projects and the related learning-sharing. Terry has over 25 years’ experience in state and local government economic development and working with public policy organizations. Terry has also practiced law in the area of public finance. Terry has a B.A., an M.A. in Public Policy and a J.D. Terry likes to sing and sings with the Temple University Singing Owls chorus.

Anna Smukowski, Program Manager Public-Private Partnerships

Anna develops and structures public-private partnerships for LISC. This includes managing applications to the CDFI Fund and the delivery of services for LISC’s Pay for Success initiative, a new financing tool that allows governments and the private sector to partner with and fund nonprofit organizations that have preventive and long-term benefits. Prior to this role, Anna worked as LISC’s Credit Officer and began her career at Deloitte Consulting with a focus in finance, pharmaceuticals and sustainability. She holds a B.S. in Finance and Economics from NYU and is pursuing her MBA at Columbia University. In her spare time, she likes to sail—that is, when she's not off running marathons in cities across the country.